Wednesday, 31 December 2008

THE year 2009 has to be the year we take our natural and human resources far more seriously.

I've been a long-term champion of the Far North as an economic dynamo for our nation's future. In the committees of the Scottish Parliament that recognition is rising. That's my job and that of other MSPs but it requires a huge adjustment to many of their outlooks.

In the 1970s the emergence of the Aberdeen-based oil industry led to a major shift in Scottish economic thinking. The old heavy industries of west central Scotland were destroyed in the 1970s and '80s by merciless Thatcherite logic and when clapped-out businesses failed to modernise, so the eastward shift of population, jobs and ideas began in earnest. Aberdeen and Dundee United became the New Firm of Scottish football and the recent census information shows clearly that it's the eastern counties and seaboard that grows their towns and villages while Galloway, Ayrshire and the Clyde Valley decline. We can work for some population reversal in Caithness and north Sutherland as the next phase.

However, the fallout from world financial chaos has to be carefully understood. On the one hand Gordon Brown tries to avoid a terminal run on the pound sterling by urging shoppers to spend their last pennies in the sales; on the other hand wiser heads are saying you have to invest in new, more resilient, types of work than just financial services. The headline spats between Gordon Brown and Angela Merkel don't tell the whole story. On the one hand Brown claims to have saved the world by resorting to Keynesian-based government spending while the German chancellor is mindful of the disastrous decade of inflation and ruin in the 1920s that led to Hitler and the scars in the German psyche against over-borrowing.

In Scotland we have other options. Like the Germans, we still have manufacturing skills to build on. Albeit Germans earn 30 per cent plus of their annual income from making things, while in Britain it's about 14 per cent. Because of the oil industry, of the nuclear decommissioning in our midst and the push to tap the infinite power of waves, tides and winds, we have a different outlook.

That's why 2009 has to be a year for a united effort to get the transport, research and development and production of new clean power up a gear.

*

WHILE commentators laughed at the collapse of Iceland's banking-based economy, and the troubles that beset Ireland with a housing crash as spectacular as their housing boom, the jibes about "arc of insolvency" will not show Iceland and Ireland going under for ever.

Far bigger countries, such as the UK, are able to hide, more successfully for the moment, the dire straits we face due to Mr Brown's deregulation mania and his age of irresponsibility.

Near this year's end, the European Union in its Council of Ministers and Parliament agreed that Scotland's green power should be a key part of Europe's powerhouse. We can provide secure and accessible electricity fit for this climate-change age. My party, in Scottish Government for 18 months now, has been building these ideas and the international contacts to create a new age of climate responsibility and resilience.

Look out for more developments along with our European friends in 2009.

London Labour has so far rubbished Scottish energy links to Norway: witness Jim Murphy traducing the Norwegian foreign minister's words which were speedily rebutted by the Norwegian embassy in London. I predict New Labour will accept that reductions in greenhouse gases via Scots clean-power production must bring targets into reach as set for the UK in the European pitch to lead the world's aim of climate common sense.

*

'WHAT'S on your plate?" was the big question posed by the National Farmers' Union of Scotland.

Was your Christmas dinner locally sourced? Can we sustain week after week a majority of our food and drink coming from Scotland? I believe that producers and consumer deserve a real choice in the matter. That's what most supermarket chains have so far denied. When they fly Scottish saltires near their produce take a close look at the labels. If price is your main criteria then you are unlikely to source local produce. That's because farmers, growers, crofters and distributors find it hard to compete with cheap imported food that has far more questionable ingredients and farming practices than supermarkets let on. That's why high-quality Scots fare costs a little more.

This year I hope many more of us will learn that making our own food from basic ingredients can be fun for all the family. Jamie Oliver showed TV viewers how, while the Scottish Parliament vote agreed on the principle of free nutritious school meals for P1 to P3 pupils. It's also why support for more home-grown produce, such as that from Mey Selections, will be good both for economic recovery as well as individual health and wellbeing.

For our Christmas family meal we had Black Isle-reared turkey and potatoes accompanied by peas, red cabbage, kale, Jerusalem artichokes and parsnips from our garden as well as frozen greengages to make the base for our trifle. The bread was made by A-Bun-Dance in Invergordon, one of the new artisan bakeries setting up locally. The cheese board carried Caithness goat's cheese and blueberries, Orkney cheddar and Connage crowdie. Climate change doesn't yet mean making quality wine here so French Côte du Rhone was just dandy. Finally the Maritime Malt of Wick followed with the Fairtrade coffee and Culloden-made mince pies.

*

OUT of this column come some possible New Year resolutions. It's up to you, attentive readers, to make you choices. Let's all toast the prospects of our northern land as we seek the best for our families and our neighbours as we enter this New Year. A' the best to ane an' a'. Bliadhna Mhath Ur 2009!

Wednesday, 24 December 2008

The global financial contagion was predictable as the end of the 18-year trade cycle always ends rash speculation with a painful 'corrections'. Woolworths' staff, Lloyds TSB and HBOS employees are the obvious high street victims. However, Scotland's natural resources can create a new economy that is less in hawk to hair-brained money raising schemes and based on manufacture, growing and building resilience in local communities.

The parliamentary session bickered into the recess with the opposition determined to paint it black.For example the forestry consultation launched by Environment Minister Mike Russell has been sorely misrepresented. Forestry workers, encouraged by their unions and opposition New Labour MSPs have cried fowl. Clearly they believe consultations which were a sham under Labour apply under SNP Government. We must plant more trees to soak up CO2, putting the huge national forest estate to work. Let's all have our say.

*

I WAS delighted to support the Evanton Community Company that seeks to buy the woods on the edge of the village for local uses. Their application, the 100th under land reform legislation, is a second slice of Evanton sought for community uses.

When I was in Kiltearn Community Council before 2003 we set out to buy the old garage site in the centre of the village which took several years from our first steps. Thanks to dogged hard work from local volunteers the site was secured earlier this year. Let's hope the woods can be secured more quickly. But from what I've seen the complex processes are bound in red tape, not tinsel.

Much of the political inheritance from the LibLab Executive is flawed laws that need post-legislative review. Not only does the community land purchase need attention also the landlord and tenant system in farming is not working as Angus McCall and the SFTA continue to show. Meanwhile clearing up the mess after ten years of prevarication and botched crofting reform, the SNP government is getting little thanks for offering solutions.

*

EVERY sector in Scottish life must play its part in the deep cuts we need in greenhouse gas emissions.

Our historic Scottish Climate Change Bill is also out to consultation and it will reach the committee I serve on next month. If the UK government took some early actions they could help us achieve 80 per cent cuts by 2050. I am slightly heartened by news that the energy regulator Ofgem said last week that it would do a U-turn and help SSE and other companies to speed the transmission of electricity generated from our on and offshore wind, wave and tidal power to markets in the south.

Another climate change contribution would be to make modern life viable in scattered Highlands and Islands communities. I have been conducting a widespread consultation on super broadband. However the low power of current broadband or its absence for many people has dominated the returns.

I will lobby BT, Ofcom and Jim Mather our Economy minister in the New Year.

Internationally, vehicle manufacturers demanding government bail-outs should be given binding conditions to double average miles to the gallon within three years.

Brown, Merkel and Obama can give the world the best Christmas present since internal combustion engines accelerated climate change. BMW, Vauxhall, Ford and the rest must sign up or else.

Simple technological changes can end greenhouse gas guzzling and save essential vehicle users a small fortune. Will the leaders of the G20 have the guts?

The global financial contagion was predictable as the end of the 18-year trade cycle always ends rash speculation with a painful 'corrections'. Woolworths' staff, Lloyds TSB and HBOS employees are the obvious high street victims. However, Scotland's natural resources can create a new economy that is less in hawk to hair-brained money raising schemes and based on manufacture, growing and building resilience in local communities.

The parliamentary session bickered into the recess with the opposition determined to paint it black.

For example the forestry consultation launched by Environment Minister Mike Russell has been sorely misrepresented. Forestry workers, encouraged by their unions and opposition New Labour MSPs have cried fowl. Clearly they believe consultations which were a sham under Labour apply under SNP Government. We must plant more trees to soak up CO2, putting the huge national forest estate to work. Let's all have our say.

*

I WAS delighted to support the Evanton Community Company that seeks to buy the woods on the edge of the village for local uses. Their application, the 100th under land reform legislation, is a second slice of Evanton sought for community uses.

When I was in Kiltearn Community Council before 2003 we set out to buy the old garage site in the centre of the village which took several years from our first steps. Thanks to dogged hard work from local volunteers the site was secured earlier this year. Let's hope the woods can be secured more quickly. But from what I've seen the complex processes are bound in red tape, not tinsel.

Much of the political inheritance from the LibLab Executive is flawed laws that need post-legislative review. Not only does the community land purchase need attention also the landlord and tenant system in farming is not working as Angus McCall and the SFTA continue to show. Meanwhile clearing up the mess after ten years of prevarication and botched crofting reform, the SNP government is getting little thanks for offering solutions.

*

EVERY sector in Scottish life must play its part in the deep cuts we need in greenhouse gas emissions.

Our historic Scottish Climate Change Bill is also out to consultation and it will reach the committee I serve on next month. If the UK government took some early actions they could help us achieve 80 per cent cuts by 2050. I am slightly heartened by news that the energy regulator Ofgem said last week that it would do a U-turn and help SSE and other companies to speed the transmission of electricity generated from our on and offshore wind, wave and tidal power to markets in the south.

Another climate change contribution would be to make modern life viable in scattered Highlands and Islands communities. I have been conducting a widespread consultation on super broadband. However the low power of current broadband or its absence for many people has dominated the returns.

I will lobby BT, Ofcom and Jim Mather our Economy minister in the New Year.

Internationally, vehicle manufacturers demanding government bail-outs should be given binding conditions to double average miles to the gallon within three years.

Brown, Merkel and Obama can give the world the best Christmas present since internal combustion engines accelerated climate change. BMW, Vauxhall, Ford and the rest must sign up or else.

Simple technological changes can end greenhouse gas guzzling and save essential vehicle users a small fortune. Will the leaders of the G20 have the guts?

Friday, 19 December 2008

THIS 2008 season of goodwill, gifts and presents, of reflection and resolve for a new year ahead, is deeply affected by the downside of debt, belt-tightening and battered self-esteem.

When ordinary citizens feel the pain, so do their elected politicians.

If we look for a better future we hope to lift the spirits and the prospects to learn how not to repeat another era of boom and bust.

First of all some bright spots: the Sixth Hands Up For Trad Awards were celebrated in the Old Fruit Market, Glasgow, over the first weekend in December.

Although not prizewinners in the friendly rivalry of the contemporary traditional music world, Caithness was prominently represented by Gordon Gunn who plays a mean fiddle in Session A9.

Also Wick's own top pianist James Ross, a contender for composer of the year, received a burst of well deserved screams of approval from younger female members of the audience.

Across the Pentland Firth, Orkney took the northern plume with awards for folk band of the year, The Chair; instrumentalist of the year, Kris Drever; and up-and-coming act, Jeana Leslie and Siobhan Miller.

The Hamish Henderson award for services to traditional music was won by Robin Morton, who is well-known across the land.

He used to play with the original line-up in Boys of the Lough who visited the Far North over the years, as did his main protégés Battlefield Band whom he recorded on his Temple record label.

Robin summed up his remarks by congratulating the gathered company who, he asserted, over the past 40 years have "invented" Scotland.

*

MEMORABLY BBC Alba was first to broadcast Na Trads, as they called the Trad Awards, after several years of campaigning by organiser Simon Thoumire.

I gained two past member's debates in the parliament to help gain cross-party support. And next year's televised awards will come from Dumfries.

It is worth noting that BBC Alba serves a far wider audience than the Gaelic community as such.

Its sports coverage digs beneath the big football leagues but also picks champions such as Craig Brown, the former Scotland football manager, to spearhead a campaign to stop a UK team participating in the London Olympics 2012.

All of us can benefit from a new channel and a bit of Scottish competition on the airwaves.

Now we have to add to my campaign to get full strength broadband coverage in the Far North by getting BBC Alba on Freeview asap.

I raised the latter with the BBC at their well-timed parliamentary reception for MSPs this week.

*

IN the week Scotland's Government lodged the most ambitious Climate Change Bill on the planet readers deserve to know why Gordon Brown declared at the Council of Ministers in Brussels that the European Union "remains the leader" on climate change policy.

We need to discuss what its details mean for Scotland. The Scottish daily press has been very unhelpful.

This EU deal between heads of governments of the 27 members included the UK agreeing that Germany, Poland and others could leave aside tougher emission trading costs due to the recession.

Potentially it allows the polluters to cash in on their dirty profits from cement and steel plants under the threat they could pull these out of the EU and pollute more freely elsewhere.

That's why, this week, we look to the European Parliament to keep the 20-20-20 climate deal on course.

Rob Gibson listens in parliament to points raised by the pupils from the Highland Children's Forum.

They have co-decision, Scotland needs their vision and resolve.

Meanwhile, of particular interest to those of us in the Far North, we also look to the UK to boost the development of Scotland's green renewable energy riches.

Brown's Government must remove the Ofgem obstacle, i.e. the artificial competition penalties on energy production in Scotland and northern England.

Brown could speed up the results of the competition for a carbon capture and storage pilot.

We in Scotland look to Scottish Power's Longannet plant to win the chance to utilise the sympathetic geology of the northern North to pump carbon into old oil wells from their major coal power station.

The UK must back this to the hilt as London stands to gain hugely from Scotland's green energy production when the UK's share of carbon-cutting targets is measured.

I would expect that citizens could be told how big an issue this is.

Indeed it is a key issue for Scotland's economic recovery and sustainability in far more detail.

I'll do my part to look at these issues in my reports in the Groat.

*

EARLIER in the week I had the privilege of being grilled by P7 pupils at Mount Pleasant Primary School in Thurso.

They were tenacious and involved in the details of what free school meals could mean for their younger schoolmates and how they saw the food on offer from Highland school meals service.

Once my long list of queries is compiled I'll come back to this as the Scottish Government received Parliamentary approval to go ahead and offer free school meals across the board to P1-P3 pupils.

My next port of call was Pulteneytown Academy to offer my congratulations to Liam Sutherland and his classmates in P7 who helped produce a winning poster in the Scots Language competition run by Itchy Coo Books.

I hope they enjoy the copy of Winnie the Pooh translated into Scots by James Robertson.

As I left the classroom Liam and his pals were poring over the map of the area in the story. Well done class!

Another heartening event was the gathering of 15 Highland school pupils under the wing of the Highland Children's Forum who came to the parliament a week ago.

They have had their views included in a Council-led study called "Are We There Yet? – A Way To Go" to find out just how safe, nurtured, healthy, achieving, active, respected, responsible and included they feel.

They fired questions at a range of Highland MSPs and we all enjoyed the direct questions and growing confidence of these typical Highland secondary school pupils.

I wish them a great Christmas, and a Merry Yule to all of the John O'Groat Journal readers into the bargain.

Wednesday, 17 December 2008

My selection for BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2008 As printed in the West Highland Free Press on 12th December

I finally read 'The Shock Doctrine' by Naomi Klein [Allen Lane]. A visit to the oil province of Ugra in Siberia in July and the credit crunch this autumn made this a book to remember. Subtitled 'the Rise of Disaster Capitalism', it reveals the seeds of making money from money that leads from oligarchs to the remnants of HBOS and RBS - an essential guide to rotten capitalism.

Early in the year I was riveted by Tim Neat's biography of Hamish Henderson - 'The Making of the Poet - 1919 to 1953. Seamus Mor influenced so many of us by his songs, wisdom and discourses on peace and freedom. Volume two is much anticipated as are detailed criticisms of Neat's generous findings.

Much debate about 'The Stone of Destiny' was fuelled by the republication of Ian Hamilton's account and the recent film of the heist. However Andrew Greig's 'Romanno Bridge' published by Quercus, plots a fictional battle for the true stone between a psychopathic hired killer and his characters from 'The Return of John MacNab' script for a screen thriller?

Sunday, 14 December 2008

Sir, Joanna Blythman falls into the trap of talking down a good pitch for Scotland, our self-esteem and economic potential all in one breath. [More famous men and battles … I’m well over it -SH 7.12.08] OK, escapism is her bag. Alas Scotland can't escape the poverty of investment in home grown TV or tourism and related promotions in our current constitutional condition.

I'm clear that visitors who come for golf, hill walking, distilleries or castles may also eat local, hear stirring contemporary traditional music and ponder the history they see before their eyes. So Homecoming Scotland can open eyes, but not Joanna's, it appears.

Last weekend I was delighted to attend the sixth Hands Up For Trad Awards, the first to be televised, thanks to BBC Alba. The vibrancy of the contemporary tradition was on display. So it riles me as a singer and enthusiast to read lines like Joanna's 'Homecoming, like A History Of Scotland, is cheesy and self-pleased with its TV advert fronted by celebs singing the mawkish Caledonia'.

Strangely enough Iain MacWhirter took a similar line to Homecoming in the Herald, the previous week, namely 'A rather dreary advert with the usual suspects droning Caledonia…'

Might I suggest to both that Dougie MacLean's induction in the Trad Hall of Fame has more validity than their down-the-nose pontificating. Strong sentiments about the place we call home goes with iconic symbols recognised round the globe. Please understand Joanna, folk like to sing and reminisce, and traditional music covers all aspects of life including home sickness.

For those struggling to feed their families or find a decent roof over their heads in various continents there is little time for sentiment. But Scotland's story has often denied our own people 'breid, barley bree and painted room' in the words of Hamish Henderson, or is that just droning on and mawkish too?

Tuesday, 9 December 2008

With 59 tables in two rooms and Npower renewables sponsorship this brought together the movers and shakers in a hugely developing industry. Scotland's place as Green Energy capital is an achievable target. I was at the Npower table just below the podium. Good contacts as they have just won approval for the run-of-river scheme on the River glass in my home village Evanton. The Black Rock Gorge which is downstream of the proposed plant is one of the wonders of the world. It appeared in a Harry Potter movie as an underwater scene! The steep sides narrow to a couple of metres from a fifty metre across section. Stunning.

The same cannot be said of the keynote speech at Green Energy Awards by leader of Scots New Labour MSPs Iain Gray. He had comprehensively rubbished the Saltire Prize earlier in the week. Alex Salmond has recognised the complexity of the task set. This is to generate a minimum of 100 gigawatt hours over a two year period. It opens bids for the award for June 2013. New Labour managed to elicit a headline in the P&J 'Renewable energy policy is in shreds, Salmond told'. So Gray rasped on at the Awards speech about himself doubling the prize money if he is FM in 2015. Realism is not Labour's strong suit. So the buzz at the awards was for the winners, not the loser Mr Gray.

Hands Up for Trad Awards, folkie heaven, The Old Fruit Market, Glasgow Saturday 6th December. My table no 21 was set well in the centre of the hall with guests, Eleanor, Rita Hunter, Aileen McLeod, Drew Scott and his mum, Christina McKelvie MSP and Pete Wishart MP also Aileen Campbell MSP and her fiancé Fraser. You'll see us on the BBC iPlayer this week. My lime green shirt is very visible. At last in its sixth year it was televised by MG Alba. Well done. And a stunning array of music. We met lots of great folk and had the pleasure of a company Rita described as the 'extended family'.

S3M-03059 Rob Gibson (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): That the Parliament congratulates Hands Up For Trad for organising the sixth annual Scots Trad Music Awards, Comharrachadh Duaisean Dual-cheòl na h-Alba 2008, held in the Old Fruit Market in Glasgow on 6 December 2008; congratulates the award winners, runners up and performers on the night who show that Scottish traditional music from Shetland to the Borders is in excellent health, attracting new supporters for Scotland’s contemporary indigenous music and bringing it to wider public notice each year, which acts as a barometer of a confident and innovative musical culture and industry in today’s Scotland; further congratulates BBC Alba for being the first broadcasting station to televise this event and looks forward to future TV coverage every year, and keenly anticipates the seventh annual awards in Dumfries in November 2009, which will conclude the Scottish Homecoming 2009 celebrations.Lodged on Monday 8 December 2008; current

Monday, 8 December 2008

Scotland’s natural resources in renewable energy are amongst the most bountiful in Europe. They offer a tantalising economic prize to build and operate marine and onshore renewables that serve the home market and our European neighbours too. Renewable energy development is driven by climate-change imperatives and underpinned by sound engineering developed here in Scotland. To succeed it requires rail, roads and harbour facilities to service energy hubs which adapt know-how from the oil and gas industry. It is also regenerating communities, some of which are forming clean power companies, in contrast to a mistaken metropolitan view that wrote them off as peripheral or redundant.

Renewable energy sources are, by their very nature, often distant from the markets that they need to serve, yet the transmission-charging regime set by the UK government actively works against the development of those resources. Prime examples are the huge tidal and wave potential of the Pentland Firth as well as deep sea offshore wind schemes at the Beatrice field in the Moray Firth, and huge offshore wind resources along the west coast.

While the Scottish government is doing all in its power to maximise Scotland’s vast renewable potential, the Labour UK government is holding Scotland back. Current transmission charging undermines the most efficient production by electricity generators in the North of Scotland by over £20 per kW to put energy on the grid, while generators in London would get a subsidy of £8 per kW.

The demise of cheap gas and the search for energy security must favour wind, waves and tides, free and inexhaustible, unlike uranium and hydrocarbons. So the additional charges amounting to £100m per annum for the 10,000MW generated in Scotland must be scrapped. Until the UK transmission charges are cut, Scotland will be hindered in its attempts to fulfil her renewable energy potential.

Other inhibitors include limited production capacity for wind turbines as manufacturers struggle to keep up with demand. A problem case is the threatened Vestas factory in Kintyre. The sizes of turbines and wind towers being demanded are far bigger than the facilities originally built there with public funds. Also refusals and delays in the planning process have forced both Scottish and UK law changes where a nine-month turnaround time is the aim. Grid strengthening via the Beauly to Denny power line is a long awaited key determination.

Complementary to overland transmission, first minister Alex Salmond has consistently sought the creation of a North Sea ‘super grid’ that could transmit clean power from as far north as Shetland to energy-hungry markets in northern Europe. He has welcomed the publication of the European Commission’s Strategic Energy Review which identifies a North Sea Offshore Grid as an infrastructure priority, saying: “Never before have we been so well placed to become the green energy capital of Europe. The Commission’s report designates the blueprint for a North Sea Offshore Grid as one of the six proposed infrastructure priorities. I am delighted that our clear strengths in renewable energy, and our massive renewables potential, have been recognised as contributing to European energy security.”

Meanwhile the SNP government budget has tripled funding for community and micro-generation compared to the previous Labour-Lib Dem Executive – which means £13.5m available each year over the next three years. Also budgeted are increased resources of £30.5m over three years promoting a range of sustainable development and climate-change initiatives, including a Climate Challenge Fund.

The SNP government has also published ambitious climate-change legislation to set mandatory long-term targets achieving an 80 per cent reduction in emissions by 2050; this requires emissions reductions of three per cent each year, which the UK government has now followed.

Renewables capacity in Scotland has grown by one fifth in the last year alone and can now power 60 per cent of Scotland’s homes. Scotland can be Europe’s green powerhouse even faster if it gains full fiscal powers like Norway. For now, in the mouth of recession, the £10m Saltire Prize for marine renewables is accelerating the pace. As Scots aspire to lead the renewables revolution, so greater prizes are eminently within our grasp.

Though living just beyond the Highland Line, I am of proud Highland extraction; and the County of Sutherland — where I holiday frequently — is aye dear to the heart of a true Gael.

And it is as a Gael that I can see what a fine man Rob Gibson is. I know he works tirelessly for his constituents — and with his deep knowledge of crofting and Highland culture, it is a mistake for Messrs Mackenzie and Forbes to take gratuitous pot-shots at him in the letters page of Am Bratach.

Instead Forbes and the Mackenzies (several of them!) would do well to haud their wheest and listen to Rob.

Unlike some, Rob’s loyalty is not in doubt. Unlike some, he is not a lickspittle of the lairds — instead he bravely stands up for a new future for crofting. Study what he has said on the Mound — it is all there to be read on the web!

Of course true Gaels might be forgiven for speculating that the fell hand of party politics might have guided certain pens. Rob Gibson is a Scottish Patriot. No more needs to be said!

At the Cross Party Group for Architecture held in CR5 on Thursday 2nd December we heard a presentation on an exciting new housing expo which will be a first in Scotland. My colleague Cllr Jean Urquhart and her team from Highland Council filled in the details of what is now called Scotland's Housing Expo, subtitles the Highland Housing Fair. It is planned for august 2010 on a site on the southern outskirts of Inverness. I gave a social and economic introduction.

The benefits of such a project to the Highlands and Scotland are legion. Namely, this is a first for Scotland and will put us on a par with our European counterparts - with the proven success of housing fairs particularly in Scandinavia.It has the capacity to influence the nature of future housing in Highland, and across the nation, through it's ethos of high quality design and sustainability.

It recently changed the name to 'Scotland's Housing Expo' in recognition of its national importance, although the team still retain the strap line Highland Housing Fair as they are proud that it is in the Highlands. It is highly significant in the Highlands with it's diversity of housing needs.

The team is now looking to the Scottish Parliament to recognise the importance of the project and invite all MSP's to support Scotland's Housing Expo.

I complimented Highland Council for initiating the project, and the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) who have backed it, and accredited the architectural competition.

DESPITE the deepening gloom in the UK and world economies, many Scots bravely joined in the launch of the Year of Homecoming on St Andrew's Day. In freezing weather people ventured forth to ceilidhs and torchlight processions in many towns.

This display for Scotland's national saint coincides with the BBC TV series A History of Scotland, in which Neil Oliver homes in on key figures and events in our national story.

It also signals the start of the Winter Festival running through to Burns Night on January 25. The TV ad with stars singing "Caledonia" warms the heart.

There is a shared history from Caithness to Coldstream, on the Scottish border. When I was researching the Wars of Independence some years back I noted that collectors from Edward Longshanks were demanding taxes at Wick harbour.

Every part of the land has its stories to tell. And we should still be proud to wave the saltire as a modern people who just as in the Middle Ages come from diverse origins. Then it was Picts, Scots, Vikings, Angles and Britons.

Today the mix contains folk from several continents, Italians and Poles, Bangladeshis, Indians and Kashmiris and Chinese, to name but a few, who now call Scotland home.

These are not normal times but I hope lots of folk of Scots ancestry and affinity will voyage here in the 250th anniversary year of the birth of Robert Burns.

I realise we have to be confident and play our shots out of the economic rough and some are looking very long shots.

Evidence of hazards isn't hard to see. Woolworths and MFI won't be the last high street names to be threatened in the recession. The husks of HBOS and the RBS are being merged and nationalised. A huge cutback in public services is planned by Chancellor Darling.

Efficiency savings of two per cent were part of the Scottish Government budget that could be reinvested in the services making them. Now a £500 million cut on top of that is only a first instalment to the fiscal pain we face to "rebalance" the UK economy.

It is a modicum of comfort for small businesses announced this week that overdraft facilities will be stabilised by the RBS. Home-owners in difficulty will be offered three extra months before action is taken by the RBS on failure to pay instalments. They and we want to know how to avoid ever again the burgeoning debt and house prices that pick out the Brown years as chancellor. They and we want to know how manufacturing, which has reached a low of 14 per cent of the UK's GDP, will be expanded in future, rather than bankers selling money to other bankers without producing a single lasting product.

That is why the Scottish Parliament debate this week on Mr Darling's pre-budget report is an important first instalment. As I've said in previous notes, regulating banks will only be a start.

As for the 45 per cent tax rate promised for those earning over £150,000, that is only a sop. Directing economic development efforts to our huge marine power potential will remain potential unless a stable development regime is created.

I heard in a seminar last week that Ofgem will have to account for sustainability in its charging regime. Not before time, many say.

I have been invited to the Green Energy Awards where I can sample opinion in the industry and I expect the Scottish Government's Saltire Prize to be widely welcomed. But when will London match that ambition?

As the First Minister wrote on St Andrew's Day: "Scotland is a country of vast potential, but is currently held back by its inability to take the crucial economic decisions needed in its own interests."

That's why the Calman Commission, set up by the Unionist parties, made such a feeble squeak in its interim report published last Tuesday.

It is clear that Gordon Brown's departments in London are under orders to give as little more power to the Scottish Parliament as possible. How will the Lib Dems and Tories view New Labour's dog-in-a-manger attitude? Surely the Scottish people are looking for devolution to progress not shrink. For Calman himself has said that his evidence shows devolution is working well. It could of course work far better. But does he even acknowledge the SNP Government position? Not if his political masters continue to censure his enquiry.

Instead the country needs control of all our own resources and the ability to borrow like any normal government. That would give us the chance to compete on a level playing field with the other countries currently able to use these tools to best suit them and see them through the global downturn. Unlike the UK, some small independent European nations such as Finland and Norway are projected to keep on growing, with marginal growth in the Euro area as a whole, while the UK plunges into the economic mire.

Supporting kinship carers is being threatened by the UK Government Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) when it updates rules regarding kinship carers of looked-after children. No kinship carer should lose out on the new allowances agreed in the historic concordat between Scotland's local authorities and the Scottish Government.

While some kinship carers are currently in receipt of state benefits, that may be clawed back by the DWP if the rules are not amended, rendering the kinship care allowance pointless for some families. Potentially this may result in Scotland's local authorities and the Scottish Government effectively subsidising the UK treasury.

The SNP believes that any claw-back would not only be an unacceptable way to treat our kinship carers but would also hamper the clear policy objectives of the democratically-elected Scottish Government and local authorities in Scotland.

I'd be very pleased to hear from anyone affected among your readers or their friends.

I was elected Highlands & Islands MSP in 2003. I am a member of the Parliament's Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change Committee as well as the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee. I am also a historian, musician, author and traditional music festival organiser.
Scots, Gaelic and the Traditional Arts are core interests as are nuclear disarmament, affordable housing and saving consultant led services in the NHS.
I was born and educated in Glasgow, and attended Dundee University and Education College. As a former Modern Studies teacher much of my professional life was spent teaching at the Invergordon and Alness Academies as the Principal Teacher of Guidance. Since early retirement, or early ‘relifement’ as I like to call it, I have developed my historical training and skills by writing the book Plaids and Bandanas.
I have been a long time SNP activist and was a former District Councillor in Ross and Cromarty. I joined the SNP in 1966, was FSN President from 1970-1973 and have been a member of the SNP's National Council, Executive, and Cabinet.